Tokyo Game Show 2006: A Total Snore?

TGS 2006 LogoAs you know, my three day coverage of Tokyo Game Show 2006 is now done! With this being the first full game convention I covered, I’m proud to say I’ve decided on the final awards for the show. I wasn’t actually at this one, but perhaps I’ll be able to report you to you live from a game convention sometime in the future.

Tokyo Game Show has been running for 10 years, and hosted the video game industries' top company’s best products last weekend. Here’s a wrap up on my Tokyo Game Show 2006 convention coverage!

After long deliberation, I’ve finally decided on what games deserve my awards for this year at the Tokyo Game Show. First, though, we must address the convention as a whole.

The day before the show, Microsoft held a press conference for TGS 2006. They announced their “bringing it home” campaign. Apparently, they’d be bringing out new demos and videos on XBox Live to commemorate the event. Unfortunately for us, the content ended up mostly consisting of videos. Videos, for the most part, can be fabricated. XBox 360 owners wanted playable demos, and the only one they got was of Fusion Frenzy 2. Although the demo was good, Microsoft made it out to be something that would be a lot bigger than it really was, and to the fans, that just isn’t fair. In this manner, I think Microsoft failed miserable.

On day one , Sony’s CEO and President made his keynote speech for TGS 2006. Talking mostly about the hardware and its potential, many fans felt that it was a boring and worthless speech. This is a misconception, because Sony really just wants gamers to focus on the games that are on the floor. Of all the demos on the floor that you could play, the PS3 greatly outnumbered the XBox 360. Ken Kutaragi literally let the games speak for themselves.

On day two , I covered most of the games that had already been around on day one. Some new stuff emerged, but not a lot. The most interesting part about day two was that it was the first time that the public was allowed in. On day one, only the press and VIP’s were allowed entry. In essence, day two was kind of a throw away for the public. I would have expected more from day three, however.

On day three , almost nothing happened. I would have thought some big announcements would happen on day three. Honestly, I was expecting a big showing of Gears of War or something along those lines. Why were there no major events on the last two days? Why were there, for that matter, no major events that really took place during the whole convention? The real question for this years convention was… Was the whole convention just a big snore?

Overall

My overall view of the convention was that Sony just reinforced what it had already been using to support its PS3. The only difference now was that Sony brought out a ton of PS3’s and put out demos for everybody to play. By doing his, Sony let the fans and public play their games, most of them for the first time. Sony was really reaching out to the public in Japan, while Microsoft was making only a feeble attempt at doing so. This, to me, meant that Sony really stood out above Microsoft. On the other hand, we have Nintendo, who never even showed up. Although they announced this prior to the convention, I still feel a little awkward about it. Why wouldn’t you come to one of the biggest conventions in the world? Just because you aren’t in direct competition with Sony and Microsoft, doesn’t mean you have to run away from them. Nintendo needs to man up, and they haven’t so far. This makes me a little nervous about the launch of the Wii on the 9th. I still don’t think the Wii will flop, but I have my doubts about the consoles success now.

If you were waiting for the awards, I know it’s been a little long for a short article. Fortunately, I’m done talking, and here are Matt Wood’s awards for Tokyo Game Show 2006!